Artful Thinking

This past Friday, we decided to expand our minds in one of my favorite ways : Artful Thinking.

The Artful Thinking program was developed in collaboration with the Traverse City, Michigan Area Public Schools. The purpose of this program is to focus on students appreciating art rather than just creating it. I like to use artful thinking to help students create connections between art pieces and the topics we study in class.

We have just begun a new novel study of Scott O'Dell's Sing Down the Moon, so I made this choice for Friday's art piece: 

The students were given some time to view the painting -- just to 'take it all in.' We paired our viewing with a See, Think, Wonder. The students were given 3 color coded post-its, one for their Sees, one for their Thinks and one for their very important Wonders.

 

We used our classroom Target Tabs to track our seeing, thinking and wondering and then they chose one to share with the class on our See Think Wonder chart.

I'm always amazed and the observations they come up with and the powerful impact art can have on young people. It's also a phenomenal platform for visualizing our novel's plot line.

Here are some of their thoughts:

Weekend Wisdom

Common Core Roadmaps!

As November opens it's eyes and we join it in truly welcoming Fall into our grasp, one other thing waits upon the horizon: Conferences.

Some of my teacher friends are already well underway with their conferences -- but here in the Western pocket we have a few more days.

After preparing conference folders last week, I came across some helpful tools that I will be using this year to help parents understand what we do here at school.

Here are some of the things in my toolbox this year.
They are mighty helpful ::: use them if you like!

First up: a video that concisely explains the Common Core and its expectations for students and teachers. This video is free to use as you'd like (meaning it can even be put on your school website)!







Next up:
Some really nice handouts and roadmaps to lead your parents through what the CCSS means and how they can be supportive of these expectations on their end!

These Parents' Guide to Student Success Printable Flyers provide an organized overview of what your child will learn by the end of their academic year in both math and English language arts/literacy.

Click here to access these flyers in color (they are also available in B&W)

Lastly,
Some printable  Parent Roadmaps from The Council of Great City Schools.

These resources guide parents about what their children will be learning and how they can support that learning in grades K-8. These Parent Roadmaps also provide three-year snapshots showing how selected standards progress from year to year so that students will be college and career ready.

If you're interested in checking these out: Click  here!


I hope this are as useful to you as they are to me!




Miss Brown